1. Technical Field
This invention relates to retractable platforms and, more particularly, to an automated retractable platform device for bridging a gap between a train and a station platform during passenger loading and unloading procedures.
2. Prior Art
America in the 21st century is a nation of commuters. Most of us work someplace outside the home, and for most of us, that place lies somewhere down the highway. For commuters who live in the suburbs or, increasingly, the farther removed “exurbs,” the commute can be extreme. It is not uncommon for a person employed in San Francisco to live in Modesto or Gilroy, and drive several hours twice a day; and similarly highway-bound existences can be found on the ever-receding peripheries of any'major city. Still, with all the news about road-rage, traffic jams, and the mounting hassles of the commuter lifestyle, we may forget that millions of Americans commute in another manner—by train. Trains offer certain advantages when it comes to the morning and evening commute.
For one thing, it's entirely possible to read the newspaper on the morning train and take a nap on the evening commute. The countryside reels past, the click of the wheels on the tracks instills a reassuring rhythm in the mind and body, and the train proceeds (on most days) like clockwork, traveling down its accustomed track by predestination. On a commuter train, one can relax and prepare for—or forget, once they've been met—the demands of the business day. The commuter brethren on the highway, meanwhile, are engaged in a heart-pounding, high-stakes game that is equal parts patience and aggression; small wonder that they come home exhausted and irritable, hands shaking until the first cocktail is down. Given the choice, what veteran of the highway commute would not prefer the train?
Then again, commuting by train or subway does have its downside. For one thing, the train commuter must navigate among a sea of strangers each morning and evening, generally at times when he or she most craves silence and solitude. For subway commuters, this lack of privacy and personal space is extreme, as one is frequently shoulder-to-shoulder, standing in a closely packed crowd of fellow riders. On trains, one's seatmate is often a stranger, and not always a polite or agreeable one.
And then there is the rush out the doors when the train reaches the platform or station—“people pushing, people shoving,” as one rock-n-roll song put it, “on the 8:15 into the city.” On top of all this, there is the very real hazard involved in actually stepping off the train and onto the platform. You have to consciously step out, or risk falling between the train and the concrete—a mistake that could be the ruin of your day, certainly, if not your life. In the hurly-burly of the commute, people do in fact fall and get injured between trains and platforms, a problem that the present invention will solve.
Platform gaps, up to 15 inches wide, can be caused by a station's curvature and the design of trains, whose sides are straight. Fliers, posters and yellow stickers on train doors urge riders to “Watch the Gap.” Subway and commuter train stations are busy, crowded places where large groups of people are constantly in motion, and frequently in motions opposed to one another. Scrambling to get aboard a train, or attempting to get off at the station, a passenger frequently finds himself or herself in an anxious, distracted state of mind—a state more likely to lead to a potentially catastrophic misstep.
Accordingly, the present invention is disclosed in order to overcome the above noted shortcomings. The retractable platform device is convenient and easy to use, lightweight yet durable in design, and designed to assist train passengers with entering and exiting the train.